Thursday, March 26, 2009

This afternoon, LK and I decided to go to Singapore Botanic Gardens to check if any of the plants there were flowering. The gardens was founded in 1859 by an Agri-Horticultural Society as a leisure garden and ornamental park. Management and maintenance was handed over to the government in 1874.

We entered the gardens at its headquarters, and saw several spotted doves (Streptopelia chinensis) foraging on the ground. They usually feed on grass seeds.

This tree bears little blue fruits, and is commonly called the blue marble tree or blue fig (Elaeocarpus angustifolius). Despite being called blue fig, it is not a fig tree, and is often planted for its pretty white flowers.

Within the gardens is a little patch of primary rainforest with a boardwalk, which allows visitors to have a closer look at the forest ecosystem.

The rattan is a common climber in our rainforests. It is a very useful plant which can be made into furniture or baskets.

Another climber is the liana, a woody vine which tangles itself up the canopy to reach out for sunlight.

Several trees in the forest were bearing fruits today, including this palm tree which I have forgotten its name.

When I went to Bukit Timah and MacRitchie a few weeks ago, the Baccaurea spp. were all flowering. And today at the Botanic Gardens, they were fruiting!

This unknown plant was very common by the sides of the boardwalk.

We spotted a pair of greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) almost immediately after we stepped into the forest.

I spotted this dead cicada on a leaf. Not sure if the white stuff was part of it, or was it growing mould already.

We saw a pair of Malay Viscount (Tanaecia pelea pelea) mating. Unfortunately, they flew off when I took this photo and thus it was a little blurred.

I finally got a decent photo of a slender squirrel (Sundasciurus tenuis)! Well, it's not fantastic, but at least it's somewhat clear, unlike the previous ones I've taken. This squirrel is said to feed on soft tree bark, fruits and insects.

After we emerged from the forest, we saw this dipterocarp (Family Dipterocarpaceae) blooming.

In fact, it was fruiting too! Can't remember the species though. Haha.

Under a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra), the ground was covered with kapok flowers!

And there were still lots of flowers on the tree!

If I remember correctly, this should be the fruit of a nutmeg tree (Myristica sp.).

We came across yet another flowering dipterocarp.

Another species of squirrel, the plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus) was also spotted. This squirrel can be commonly spotted in some parks and gardens too.

The pink-necked green-pigeon (Treron vernans) appeared to be quite common here, and we saw several of them. They can blend really nicely into the foliage though, and so it can be quite hard to spot them sometimes, especially when they keep still.

All in all, it was a good trip with plenty of flowers and cute little animals :)

1 comment:

hi :-) I just found out that The Dipterocarpaceae above is Vatica rassak. I got lot of its fruit from Salawati Island (West Papua) last month and try to grow them in my campuss (Universitas Indonesia).